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They are true variations in my mind, with front and back differences. They were not intentional or corrected errors, but did the result from the decision to double print them with resulting differences

And the differences are no less distinctive than the 58 Herer or 57 Bakep or the 52 Campos Black Star, or 61 Fairly green smudge, Brian, all of which PSA has recognized. You mentioned Campanella. There is a recurring print defect on some of his cards, as well as several others in that set ( Snider is another). But the Mantle, Thompson and Robinson differences are not print defects.

I am not a registry guy, just a set collector. I think SCD did list them, so I had to have them

I don't believe people didn't recognize the differences before 1980. They are quite noticeable. Maybe there was no formal differentiation, but that's not the same thing.

I have to think you're right about that. After all, what were '52 Topps Mantles selling for in the late '70's - early '80's - a couple hundred bucks in nice condition? Experienced dealers would have known about the variation, but not made a big deal of it, as do all today. Not sure, but I think the many card variations in other 1950's sets that are well known today were also familiar to veteran dealers and collectors in the past, but not considered important enough to write about - until relatively recently.

In post war I would liken missing the Wagner in the t206 set to missing the Roberts, Stankey and Konstanty cards in the Topps 1951 Current All Stars. Not variations but cards that exist in extremely low numbers as compared to other cards in the set,

You can complete a 52 set with one Mantle, Robinson and Thompson, but do you
need a Wagner to have a complete t206 set, and a Roberts, Konstanty and Stankey to have a complete 1951 Topps current All Star set ? Pretty sure my set will always be short those 3 of 11

No, it would be like collecting the t206 set without Magie and Doyle N.Y. Nat'l. Jefferson Burdick and others didn't consider both Magee's necessary for the set. Sweeney no b was removed from the checklist and other printing errors were never added. Complete sets are one of every player. Master sets are every variation or error.